My Own Capacity

• Which issues impacting young children and their families and/or the field of early childhood fuel your passion?

• I feel most passionate about disadvantaged and at-risk populations. This could be minority or low-income students, foster youth, students with disabilities, etc. I've talked about my own childhood in foster care before, which I think really fuels this passion. I want to make sure that other students growing up in similar situations have the opportunities and resources necessary for them to succeed against the odds that may be stacked against them.

• What resources do you have at your disposal that can benefit your advocacy work?

• I work at a medical university that invests a lot in children. There are a lot of doctors, psychiatrists, and specialists who I can speak to about how to best help children in our area. We often hold conferences and events on site to help youth, so I feel like these colleagues are a great resource. In my unit (psychiatry), we do a lot around the holidays for the in-patient children. For some of these kids, they receive their first Christmas gift in life from us. We also donate costumes and let them trick-or-treat through our offices during Halloween. While they're combating issues with mental illness, we try to give them some semblance of a normal life. 

• What knowledge, skills, dispositions, and/or talents do you possess that will contribute to your advocacy work?

• I have a personal interest in my advocacy work because I was in the same shoes a lot of these children are. Having a Master's in Psychology and an EdD in Educational Leadership also helps me approach my advocacy from different perspectives. I don't know that I have any special talents, but I enjoy writing, so I hope that would be an advantage when helping to draft policies. As for my disposition, I'm pretty optimistic about most things in life, so I think having a positive outlook will help me in the long run.